FanFest Recap

On Sunday, a crowd of 7,000 swarmed Oracle Arena's corridors as the Oakland A's resurrected their FanFest after a 3 year hiatus. The event featured nearly every current member of the A's, the coaching staff, and such Oakland legends as Vida Blue, Gene Tenace, Joe Rudi, David Justice and Scott Hatteburg in honor of their 40th anniversary of their 1972 World series team and 10th anniversary of their 20 game win streak. The FanFest featured question and answer sessions thoughout the entire event, autographs (with horrendous lines that took nearly 45 minutes each), a memorabilia sale, pictures, clubhouse tours, and various booths in which to visit. One event that gathered noteriety was a 1-on-1 sit down with the infamous owner of the A's, Lew Wolff. I did not attend the sit down with Wolff, but reports were that the conversation constantly centered around the Oakland to San Jose move and the offseason trades/acquisitions.
Many new faces were present at the event (Milone, Gomes, Smith, Peacock, etc). Seth Smith said the FanFest was like "The first day of school" as this was the first time numerous additions were meeting their teammates. For instance, Smith mistakenly called Tyson Ross, "Tyler". Gomes also asserted himself, entering with a flamboyant Mohawk, and was asked about whether he'd wear his traditional number 31 this season (Which Brandon Allen wears). Gomes stated that he didn't want "To pull the veteran card (On Allen)". Looks like we'll see Gomes in #31 in 2012...
The event was centered around optimistic feelings for the upcoming season. Here are a couple quotes:
Bob Melvin (When asked about the club's performance in 2012): "I've never put on a major league baseball uniform in my life thinking I was going to lose. This team will come out there every day and give it everything they've got"
Brandon McCarthy: "This team can win 60 games or 90 games. It just depends on how fast we come together"
Both seem like very reasonable statements. If the team can adopt Melvin's philosophy, this team could become a dark horse. Gomes cited the 2008 Rays and Melvin cited the 2007 Diamondbacks as teams no one expected to compete with inexperienced staffs, and both made deep playoff runs. Nothing is impossible in baseball, but it will hinge on if the A's clean themselves up defensively (Which Melvin said would be an emphasis) and if Oakland can take advantage of scoring situations.
My personal experience at FanFest was enjoyable overall. The lines were indescribably terrible, however, welcoming back Oakland baseball four months into the offseason was wonderful to experience. Personally, my favorite moment of the afternoon was Dallas Braden, who was especially outgoing on Sunday, who proceeded to denounce the Yankees as a franchise: "The A's have genuinely won their championships, we aren't like the Yankees or the Steinbreners who needed to buy their championships and resorted to cheating to win...". It just cemented Braden's status as being the unofficial ambassador to Oakland (And Stockton of course).
The FanFest was a chance for fans and players alike to build up hype for the upcoming season and to harbor good feelings after a controversial offseason. In my personal opinion, I would deem it a sucsess.
(Be on the lookout for my season preview when spring training begins in February)